Conventional automotive doors are manufactured in a modular fashion wherein an outer skin, or exterior panel, is secured to one side of a structural door frame, and an interior trim panel is secured to the opposite side of the door frame to define an interior space therebetween. To facilitate assembly in a manufacturing line environment, various door accessories may be mounted to the interior trim panel prior to securing the trim panel to the door frame so that the door accessories will be properly positioned on the door frame in a single manufacturing step. After the door accessories are in place on the door frame, additional fasteners, such as threaded fasteners, are installed to more securely attach the door accessories to the door frame. In order to install these additional fasteners, and to provide access to the interior of the door for service, conventional interior trim panels are provided with an access opening and a removable access panel, or bolster, covering the opening.
The access opening must be large enough to permit assemblers or service technicians to access the door accessories while the interior trim panel remains fixed to the door frame. Large access openings tend to weaken the interior trim panel and restrict styling options for the panel. Moreover, access to door accessories which are remote from the access opening is often cumbersome, requiring the use of additional fasteners installed directly through the interior trim panel. For example, manufacturers often secure an audio speaker directly to the door frame by fasteners installed through the interior trim panel. After the fasteners have been installed, a speaker grille is typically applied to the interior trim panel to hide the fasteners from view.
Requiring a separate bolsters and cover items such as a speaker grilles increases manufacturing cost and time to assemble the door. In addition, seals between the bolster and grille and the interior trim panel are typically required to reduce and/or eliminate wind and road noise from entering the passenger compartment. Providing these seals and applying them to the bolster and trim further increases manufacturing cost and time. A need therefore exists for an automotive door assembly which addresses various drawbacks of the prior art, such as those discussed above.